Kalindor

This is a bit moot, as I'm not keen to have Breach not affect Stoneskin.

Also, I don't think Stoneskin needs any more buffs. It is appealing enough for a spell slot already.

Sanctuary

I don't mind it having both 1 casting speed and immunity to divination. If it doesn't allow any offensive move, I see little room for exploiting the spell.

Agree.

David, I don't know if I've already suggested you this, but have you ever thought about making SCS copies of pre-buff spells with no animations? I know it's only a cosmetic tweak but for me it would make the pre-buff option A LOT better.

I assume you mean "no casting glow" and not "no spell VFX." I would vote yes for the no casting glow but it doesn't seem to be a large enough deal to copy every spell that is going to be prebuffed by any mage in the game.

...or that players can't face mages unless they have a mage themselves of equivalent or higher lvl (almost never early on).

Allow me to bemoan the fact that this is basically the definition of an imbalanced class.

Let's assume that PnP RRoR could be SR's solution for liches, we still have rakshasas to handle, and in this case it's not 6th+ lvl spells, but 8th+!!! I'd dare to say that for them it's pointless to add an anti-SI 8th lvl spell imo, because Spellstrike is just one lvl higher (though those 2 caster lvl are not cheap).

As someone who is currently playing through a SR+SCS/SCSII multiplayer LAN game with some friends, I must say that Rakshasas, while threatening, are not so difficult as to be frustrating. Note that we are using Keldorn and a swashbuckler with detect illusion, however...

I would think an Armor spell that gives Mages some bonus hitpoints (either set or level scaling bonus) would be more useful and more challenging when utilized by enemies.

I would very much enjoy a spell that increased hit points on my sorcerer. Tenser's Transformation doesn't count. This would be doubly so if the armor wasn't Breach-able.

Priests

I really cannot see them with metamagic things like contingencies and triggers. Reducing Sanctuary casting time to 1 would surely make up for it once we fix this spell to work as per PnP. Actually it could even make it OP imo, because with instant casting time every injured priest could quickly become "invulnerable", heal, and re-buff, before attacking again. Speaking of fixing this spell, in theory I should also make it not affectd by TS-like spells, as it's neither an invisibility spell nor an illusionary protection.

This is not really a problem if you consider that the priest will effectively be unable to aid his/her allies during this period, which is really the whole point of a priest.

NEVAA-AAR!!! biggrin.gif

That's the only trait making them unique and dangerous opponents, otherwise they're no different from drow wizards. Not to mention it a PnP feature

I agree with Ardanis. If you remove these immunities it also removes the players' need to use alternate strategies to defeat them. It is still quite possible to defeat these foes as it stands, and I really do not want to be able to use the same rinse-and-repeat strategy to deal with every enemy mage encounter. (I could care less about the "PnP feature" thing though except in the case when it makes the game more enjoyable.)

I'm somewhat reluctant to do this, as it's not clear why SI:Div in particular should work this way.

I agree, all SI spells should function identically apart from spell school. Also, Spell Immunity: Divination that is brought down by Divination spells isn't really "immunity" at all, heh.

DavidW

I speak as someone who works in theoretical physics, and the philosophy of science, professionally.

In the time it took you to code SCS and SCS2, you could have patched together the theory of everything by now!

Breach

What about making Breach remove only Abjuration spells?

I am in favor of this solution if the ProWeapon-only functionality gets vetoed by DavidW. Fireshield spells have always been cool but never as appealing as Stoneskin because of the interrupt-on-hit issue, but not being dispelled by a 5th-level universal countermeasure would make them a bit more attractive. (Speaking as a Sorcerer.) Pierce Shield can still be used to remove all protections in the same manner as Breach has in the past, and its higher level makes stripping every single combat protection more reasonable.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with Breach not removing specific protections even if the SCS solution is a "hot-swap." At least there would still have to be a choice between dispelling combat or specific protections since both could not be done simultaneously without utilizing a higher-level spell slot.

I sympathize with the desire to improve the threat posed to the party by priests, although they are really meant to shine as a support class, and the observation that clerics work better in a group is actually quite appropriate. I really think the casting times for priest and druid spells need some help, though. Heal takes a full round, for instance, making it an very unreliable combat-cast.

Typically wizard spells have a casting time proportional to the spell level, while lower-level cleric and druid spells often have casting times of 5 or more. Are the priest spells that much more effective that they warrant being so prone to interruption? Another option is to reduce the casting time of Sanctuary and allow priests to use that to heal and buff themselves before resuming battle.

Contingency, though, conceptually represents some mastery over meta-magic, which I don't see priests possessing. (Only a personal opinion.) I would be reluctant to grant it to priests, let alone the AI-revising effort that would be required.

I really like the change from Remove Curse to Break Enchantment, but it would be very useful if Break Enchantment was also able to remove stun effects. I am not sure if stun is considered to be non-magical, though.

Also, is it possible to make a "Greater Dispel Magic" type spell that would give, for example, a 5-level caster bonus to the dispel roll?

I don't think I'd be able to find the time to use RI in combat after about eighth level, at a guess, though it might be nice in a Minor Sequencer with Mirror Image.

I don't think they're combinable, or does using a sequencer negate this check?

If I've convinced you about the above things (let me know) then I can probably agree to make it progress more like MM and cap at 9th lvl (it may actually be a must have for BG1 balance). Deal?

In early BG1 it is even more suicidal than normal for a mage to get close enough to use burning hands due to the inferior protection spells and the 4-10 HP issue. The increased damage of BH compared to MM is rather nice because of the large risk involved. Anything that makes a mage think twice about filling the level one slots with only Magic Missile is good in my opinion. Maybe I'm overestimating Magic Missile, but I still think it trumps the other level 1 offensive spells due to magic damage and MI-annihilating alone.